Sexual Harassment and Rape Culture in secondary schools

Sexual harassment is the action of making unwanted sexual remarks or physical advances on someone even if they are uncomfortable in a professional, social situation or school place.

Some examples of sexual harassment include:

- Actual or attempted rape or sexual assault.

- Pressure for sexual favours.

- Deliberate touching, leaning over, cornering, or pinching.

- Unsolicited sexual looks or gestures.

- Unwanted sexual teasing, jokes, remarks, or questions.

- Cat calling

- Asking about sexual fantasies, preferences, or history.

- Personal questions about social or sexual life.

- Sexual comments about a person's clothing, anatomy, or looks.

- Kissing sounds, howling, and smacking lips.

- Telling lies or spreading rumours about a person's personal sex life.

- Hugging, kissing, patting, or stroking without person’s consent

- Touching or rubbing oneself sexually around another person.

- Sexually suggestive signals.

What is Rape Culture?

Rape culture is an environment where rape, sexual assault and sexual violence are normalised. These actions can be excused in the media, typically against women. Rape culture is spread through the use of misogynistic language, the humiliation of women’s bodies, the glamorisation of sexual assault and victim blaming. This creates a society that disregards and downplays women’s rights, safety and calls.

Although the term ‘rape culture’ gets thrown around a lot, people fail to see that this affects every single woman. Rape culture is implemented so deeply in society, causing waves of fear and trauma in every women. For women in the media especially, rape can kill their entire career. It is a sad fact to understand that if a powerful man were to rape a woman, the woman would being the one to suffer the consequences. The cycle of fear, trauma and anxiety is what withholds rape culture. The very roots and oppression that it was built on was women’s distress.

Rape culture teaches women to restrict themselves. Don’t walk by yourself at night, if you are stay on busy roads and be around people. Make sure someone knows your location, don’t stay out too late, never get a taxi by yourself, carry your keys in your hands, don’t listen to music when you’re walking, always be aware, immediately lock your doors when you enter your car. There are so many more tips that every single girl and woman is taught to be safe. From a young age, we are taught to limit and restrict our lives just so we don’t get hurt.

Not only does this effect workplaces, but it is a prevalent issue in secondary schools. The overwhelming and consistent harassment for explicit photos, the disgusting and dehumanising language amongst the school yard. It is like we are not people anymore, simply just objects for people to gawk at. Day after day, claims are thrown at schools all around the globe, urging them to educate their students on harassment, sexual assault and rape culture. Yet the schools remain ignorant, taking a complete blindside to the prevalent issues.

Recently as I was scrolling through my Instagram stories, I paused on one. One of my friends who attends another school (both name and school name will remain nameless) posted a photo of a poster that was stuck in the girl’s bathroom. The poster goes into details about how there has been known sexual assault, known by teachers, students and parents. It mentions how the school knew this case for 2 months, even talked to the perpetrator – and then took his word over the survivors. The school never stepped forward to speak to any survivors, never reached out for sources, never even educated the cohort. This school not only let down the survivors of this disgusting crime, but let down every single student in the female cohort. It is disgusting to see how unaware schools are of this and how ignorant they choose to remain. Even if it is small microaggressions, they choose to ignore it, instead blaming the girl. A prime example of this is uniform in America.

“Don’t wear leggings or tank tops, they’re too distracting. He’s only bothering you because you lead him on. Of course, he’s harassing you, you’re practically asking for it.” These are just a couple comments I have heard in American movies, tv shows and from my own friends. This misogynistic and insulting language is constantly being glorified in the media, film industry and amongst American schools. Why is it that a girl has to cover up so her male peers can learn? What’s the issue with a bare shoulder? Is it not unfair to the girl if she is constantly being told to cover up, being sent to the office and just downright being harassed for wearing something she’s comfortable in? It is truly revolting and sickening to know that this offensive language is so normalised, to the point where we brush it off. Leading me to my last point; victim blaming.

Victim blaming is the action of when a victim of a crime or a wrongful act is accused of the crime/the harm that fell onto them. Victim blaming can impact the victim’s reputation, mental state and their overall life. Linking back to women in the media, victim blaming can entirely ruin a woman’s life. For an example, a Bollywood actress (can’t remember her name) was raped by the director of her upcoming movie. She was forced to stay silent by her lawyers for the sake of her career, only coming out about what happened after her movie premiere. By saying phrases such as “she asked for it” we are promoting an unhealthy society where perpetrators can avoid being held accountable for their actions. Victim blaming can also lead to a lifetime cycle of unnecessary suffering and humiliation for the victims.

How can we combat this?

So, how do we fight against this? To start off, for men especially but also women as I know some people that do this, avoiding using language that objectifies, blames, dehumanises and degrades women. I am not saying that only men do this, but compared to women they are the higher percent.

If your friend were to be sexually assaulted, support them with everything you got. Do not blame them, that will only play into the cycle of rape culture – something we do not want. For men, please shut down your mate’s rape jokes. Joking about sexually assaulting someone is never funny, do not add to the flame, immediately shut it down.

Another crucial and quite literally the most importantly thing is to speak out. Speak out against offensive jokes, speak out against sexual assault and harassment, speak out for all the victims who never had a chance to. We all have a voice, no matter how loud.